On Wednesday, the federal cabinet approved draft legislation to reduce the solidarity surcharge. If the bill is passed, the surcharge will, starting in 2021, be completely eliminated for around 90% of those who currently pay it. For a further 6.5% of taxpayers, the surcharge will be reduced. As a result, 96.5% of today’s surcharge payers will be better off.

Ahead of the “Future of Finance” conference which took place in Frankfurt on 6 November 2019, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz presented his ideas for completing the banking union in an op-ed for the 6 November edition of the Financial Times. They include a more efficient supervisory regime and crisis management, risk reduction, a European deposit reinsurance scheme and a common tax base for banks in the EU.